Pine’s Story

Pat first spied Sherri across a Virginia dance floor in 1993. He was a Marine who couldn’t dance, but that’s exactly what he asked Sherri to do after he got up the courage to talk to her. They’ve been dancing ever since.

Talk to Pat Hawkins for any length of time, and he can’t help but mention Sherri. He may be a Marine Corps veteran, ace heating and air conditioning technician and the most certified carbon monoxide expert in Minnesota, but it’s Sherri that sets his eyes sparkling. It’s that same courage he found to dance that keeps him asking the question, “what can we do to turn heating and air conditioning service into a magical experience that people rave about?”

All-the-Time Service

First thing he decided to do differently was real, 24/7 service. Pat was tired of the after-hours, out-of-town answering services that make you shiver or sweat for hours or days waiting for someone to get you comfort. The first thing he tried was making his technicians answer the phone at night. It didn’t work…

At night, most technician’s have just gotten home from a hard day’s work and don’t want to answer the phone. They’re comfortable eatin’ pizza, or drinkin’ a beer. They definitely don’t want to leave a cozy home. So they might try to solve it over the phone or see if you can wait until tomorrow. That’s not the service that you deserve. And Pat wasn’t happy.

So he gave the phone to his office staff (We call ‘em Smiling Happiness Coordinators at Pine). Their job is to give you a real, smiling, Minnesota hello and to coordinate technicians. The technician’s job is to fix your system. Now when you call Pine late at night, you get a technician sent right away to get you comfort in no-time.

On-Time Service

That got Pat thinkin’, “why is it that technicians tell ya they’re gonna arrive between 8 and 5 and then show up late?” That makes ya wait all day on a repairman and then get disappointed when they “got too busy” and “have to push you to tomorrow.” So he introduced on-time service in 2005. You get a 3-hour window of time when we’re gonna arrive, like between 8 and 11, and we give ya a call when we’re 15 minutes away, so you can prepare for us coming. And if we’re a minute late, we’ll fix your system for free, up to $500.

Pat & Sherri On the Radio

Pat also realized that he’d come alive the same way he found his courage on that Nashville dance floor if he got Sherri in his radio ads. So Pat & Sherri started their broadcast adventures on April 27, 2013 with the words, “Hey, Pat.” and “Hello, Sherri.” You’ll hear that line in just about everyone of their ads now. It celebrates the romance of that first moment they met, and all the other ones after.

Oh, and if ya ever wondered who’s voice it is, singin’ “a real Minnesota hello” in the jingle, that’s Sherri. She’s the heart and soul of Pat… and Pine too.

A Decade Free From Worry

Pat found so much courage with Sherri by his side on the radio, he decided that every heating and air conditioning system Pine sells would come with a “Decade Free Warranty”. Most heat and air guys might replace a furnace part if it’s covered by the manufacturer warranty, but still charge you for the labor. Pat decided that you shouldn’t have to pay a cent if it fails in the first ten years. That’s not a big deal, since Pine only uses the highest-quality parts, best-trained installers and spends an extra hour or two tuning every installed system to optimum, long-lasting, money-saving efficiency.

What it Takes to Become Pine Family

The same way Pine doesn’t use second-rate parts, Pat realized that he couldn’t give you the service you deserve if he hired people with fix-it skills but second-rate character. So he started hiring for character first, and then put together his own expert Repair All-Star training process to give ‘em the most expertise in Minnesota. That’s a team anyone would want to meet. Pretty soon, it wasn’t just a team, it felt like family…

“Family’s exactly how we think about our customers,” they thought. “Let’s not have some sort of cheesy agreements. Let’s let people join the Pine First in Line Family, where they get the discounted rates, VIP service and money-saving tune-ups we’d give each other, for a price that’s much less than it’s worth.” So they did that too. And that got Pat & Sherri dreaming even bigger…

A Dream for Now… and the Future…

“What if Pine became a company where we not only brought people comfort and smell-great air quality. What if our techs smelled great? What if the training and salaries they got smelled great too? What if Pine became the place where techs train to spread Pine’s smell-great service all over the country? People would love that kind of service. We’d love that kind of service. What would we call it?

It’s called Pinization. That’s what we’re shooting for… to be the best smelling heating and air conditioning company there is… the poets of repair and installation expertise… to make you so happy, you look forward to having us in your home again.

Pinization. Founded on the love of Pat & Sherri. Spreading through the smiles and dedication of Pine techs. Changing the world… or maybe just our little corner of Minnesota. We’re only at the start of this amazing adventure. We can’t wait to share some smell-great Pinization with you.